I figured that I probably waited too long to open this one, but I think I caught it right at the peak. It is much more intense than I remember.
The color is intensely deep, dark purple in color. The aromas include very ripe blackberry and blueberry, with a just a touch of vanilla. The flavors include a lot of very ripe dark fruit. And the finish is very hot. There is a lot of alcohol in this one.
This one scores 20 out of 20 points for me!
Got this one on a recommendation at a local wine store. After a brief discussion about my preferences (no slander to be given here), he steered me in the direction of a few choice selections; one was this most excellent product from the Santa Ynez Valley. Research shows a rating of 95 from Robert Parker and I totally agree with it.
Complex and full bodied, this wine is dense purple in color with notes of blackberries, blueberries, cassis, licorice, vanilla, oak, and pepper. Gotta love the heat (15.2%) and the finish is long. As memory serves, this one was priced around $35 and well worth a second purchase.
This wine has a lot – a lot of dark purple color, a lot of dark fruit aromas and flavors and a lot of pepper on the finish. There is also a little chocolate and vanilla which rounds it out nicely.
I have to say that this is one of my favorite wines that I’ve tasted this year!
This is the best Coteaux du Languedoc wine that I’ve ever tasted – period!
I’m not totally over my cold, but I can smell well enough to drink wine for the first time in over a week!
If I had this one blind, I would never guess that it was an old world wine.
It has a bright appearance with a black-cherry color with nice legs.
The aroma almost says “Paso Robles.” (The color is not dark enough though.) I say “almost” as I think I smell some roses or other flowers…I don’t smell any wood what-so-ever. (Which is why I wouldn’t think it is a French wine.)
Flavors are well-blended, there is nothing overbearing. There is a little cherry-cola, a touch of licorice, a touch of chocolate, a touch of grilled steak,
A nice long finish it falls off very slowly. Every time you exhale, it comes back to remind you what was just there. Finally a touch of cedar at the back of the mouth… Very nice indeed.
According to their web site, a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 9% Cabernet Franc, and 6% Petite Verdot. This is a beautiful dark ruby red wine. I smell dark cherries, blackberries and chocolate liquor. The flavors are dark cherry, blackberry, dark chocolate, and just a hint of smoke. The finish is huge, it builds a little heat then turns sweet and has a long gentle finish.
I believe this wine will compliment a standing rib roast quite nicely.
Merry Christmas!
This is an awesome $25 wine. Unfortunately, they are charging $40 for the thing. I blame the big wine magazine for rating last year’s vintage so high. Talk about ruining a good thing.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Kent Rosunblum’s wine. I just hate paying more than they are worth.
This wine has an awesome deep purple color.
The aromas are dark cherry, black pepper, mocha and a little vanilla.
Tastes include dark chocolate, dark cherry, blackberry, vanilla, charcoal. Lots of fruit and leather on the finish.
This is a great zinfandel but you are going to pay…go ahead and get one bottle, you’ll not be disappointed…
I think that I bought this one last Christmas time in Wyoming of all places. It was wrapped in a very attractive tissue paper thus assuring that I wouldn’t feel bad paying for it.
Appearance – very dark purple, I figure that there is no way that a wine that looks like this can be anything but outstanding.
Nose – intensely sweet blackberry, a ton of smoke and a little black pepper.
In the mouth – a lot of oak, probably American oak, but not as intense as most wines stored in American oak. This wine probably needs another 5 to 10 years on the shelf, but looking at the cork, I’m not sure it would last that long. The stains on the cork were between 1/3 and 1/2 the length. It might make it another 5 years. I’m not sure that I want to push it that long though.
Anyway, the flavors include tobacco, blackberry, cigar box, dark chocolate and a little black pepper.
The finish is nice and smooth but not as powerful as I had hoped. Don’t get me wrong on that last comment; it does not wimp out on the finish.
I think I paid $40 for this one. If you can get it for $35 or less, it is a bargain. If it costs $45 or more, skip it.
So I haven’t had a GSM in a while. This one is 50% Grenache, 30% Shiraz and 20% Mourvedre.
It is quite interesting as it has the typical earthy/musty finish of a French Rhone blend, but it also has that HUGE fruit-spice bomb of a Barossa Valley Shiraz.
First off, it is very dark purple – a good sign in my book!
The aroma is very hot with dark berries with a subtle hint of cedar.
In the mouth, it is powerful. There is a lot of dark fruit and a nice bit of spice.
The finish keeps building and building long after you swallow it. There is a little leather and a bit of cigar box to wake you up and say “what was that?â€
Had been getting used to having to spend at least $12 for a ‘daily’ bottle, but recently found one at half that price that is drinkable. Available at Trader Joe’s only (that I’ve seen) it is:
Feudo Zirtari, 2003, Indicazione Geografica Tipica Rosso, from Sicilia Italy. The trademark symbol on the label is a red triangle laying on its side, which is where I generally wind up after drinking a bottle.
I’d like to say it is great, but it’s not – but what it IS, is a very dry, very drinkable red with a fairly strong black cherry flavor, both on the nose and the tounge, for a very reasonable price.
I’m working on the second case, and will buy a third this week, if that tells you anything. It is really worth a try if you are near a Trader Joe’s and looking for a red that won’t offend you. If you like black cherry, you might just say it is worth 3 times its selling price.
John Friederich
LV, NV
This Shiraz is worthy (for the price)!
I paid about $16 for it. It was recommended by the wine shop clerk, who shares my likes and dislikes in wine. When I come in, he will greet me with news of any new arrivals that I might like. He was correct with this one.
I believe this is the second brand of wine that I’ve tried which used the “Zork†closure. I love corks and I hate screw-tops, but I think that for young wines meant to be consumed in a short time period from bottling – the Zork is great. They have a nice web site to explain it at http://www.zork.com.au/
It is a nice dark purple, the aroma is hot with a bit of licorice and cigar box behind blackberries. It has a nice taste curve, fruity at the beginning, peppery in the middle and finish. There is a lot of blackberry with a bit of tar.
This could just be my new pizza wine.
This is a great wine from Austria in the $18 to $20 price range.
In my tasting notes, I wrote “Get some!”
This is very good. It is huge for a white wine. There is a nice spiciness, which I love in white wine. I’m not sure of the fruit that I tasted, perhaps a touch of pear or honeydew melon. It has a crisp, spicy finish.
My thoughts while tasting this is that it would be great with oysters on the half-shell. I didn’t have any handy, but if I get the opportunity to ever try it I will do so.
This wine has a beautiful dark purple color. It is bright and very young in appearance. The aromas are leather, intense blackberry and ripe dark fruit. The flavors are intense and peppery with lots of dark fruit. The taste curve is nicely balanced and finishes up with a nice hint of leather.
If I was stuck somewhere with only this wine to drink, I wouldn’t complain. I have to figure out where I can acquire some more…
This is a blend of 55% Shiraz and 45% Cabernet Sauvignon from Australia. It claims that the alcohol content is 14.5%. I’m not quite buying that as I drank the whole bottle and barely felt it. But this is a decent wine, although I thought it would go well with a nice broiled steak, I say don’t bother, as the wine and steak didn’t complement each other as well as I thought they would. Now if I could just find some chocolate, I think that would do okay.
This has a decent appearance, though not as dark as some American blends. The Aroma has a nice dark cherry aroma but after that, not much else. Some suggest raspberry – okay if you insist, although I think it is closer to dark cherry.
The flavor is nice dark fruit, a bit of peppery spice, perhaps a touch of clove and blueberry. This is very nice, as I said; I drank the whole bottle in one setting. Reason enough in my mind to give it a second chance. I think rather than beef, that I might want to try it with barbequed chicken or perhaps even a spicy dish such as tacos or enchiladas.
If you can find it, pick up a couple of bottles. You’ll not regret it.
This was a special wine tasting event because the line-up included a few wines with list prices over $100.
The idea was to compare some nice Cabernet Sauvignons and blends from Oakville/Rutherford AVA, Stags Leap AVA and Mount Veeder AVA.
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The color is a very nice dark purple, with nice legs indicating a high alcohol content. It says 16.2% on the label.
At first whiff, I smell only yeast. I think that comes from the screw top, as I’ve noticed that in the last few screw top wines that I’ve tasted right after opening them up.
I let it sit in the glass for a few minutes, and then I smelled intense and ripe dark fruit.
The flavor is a tart but also ripe. I taste blackberry, blueberry and a little strawberry. The taste curve is nicely balanced, especially the finish. There is a nice spiciness from the alcohol, which I also like. I think that the tartness indicates that I opened this one a couple of years before it was intended. That’s okay with me, because this is quite nice as it is.
$22 and a screw cap warning!
I guess I better write something about this one before it is gone.
It is very dark purple and looks nice!
Smells like ripe dark fruit. They say “with plum pudding aromas†like we’d know what the heck they are talking about. Come on guys, I’m not sure that I would ever want to even think about tasting something called plum pudding. I’ll stick to banana, chocolate, vanilla and butterscotch pudding thank you very much.
Okay, so I’m not quite sure which dark fruit I smell. I don’t think it is dark cherry, perhaps a jammy blackberry and I want to say that it has a touch of gardenia in there, but that is very subtle.
It is very smooth in the mouth, almost elegant. It might store for a bit, but I don’t know that it would improve. Let’s just say drink it as soon as you get it home along with your favorite pizza, pork loin or southwestern meal.
It tastes great and I’d buy it again.
OK, so this was a pleasant surprise… On the label, this is subtitled a “Father and Son Cuvee” from Messina Hof Cellars in (are you ready for this?) — Texas. Checking their site, I discovered this one is a blend of 90% Cab and 10% Merlot and a limited production of only 2,688 bottles.
Not what I would call a great Cab, definitely not a big, bold, full bodied monster… but not bad at all. On a 20 point scale I would rate this around 15-16. Has an aromatic nose; lots of dark fruit with a hint of vanilla. The fruit follows on thru the pallate with a hint of red apple or tart plum. I got this along with some questionable bottles and honestly didn’t know what to expect; as stated earlier… a pleasant surprise.
Still the best $10 that you can spend on a bottle of wine!
I made an entry about lot number 34 last year. I like lot 37 too. It is quite a bit different than the previous versions that I’ve tasted.
This one has a lot of stuff that I like: beautiful dark purple color, dark fruit aroma, spicy-heat, earthy and well-balanced flavors, and a nice smooth finish which comes with a little heat of its own.
I don’t know exactly which grapes are in the blend, but most of the previous blends were Zinfandel, Carignane and Petite Sirah. This time they say there is a bit of Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon in there.
This is like a Rhone blend on steroids.
It has a nice dark purple color. There are aromas of dark chocolate, dark fruit such as blackberry, heavy alcohol and perhaps a touch of licorice. In the mouth, it is slightly acidic, there is a lot of fruit, but it is hard to distinguish which. I think that there is a bit of dark cherry or blackberry. There is a bit of heat on the finish from the alcohol. Overall it is a decent wine. I think it will hold until about 2007. Price was about $24.
Their web site lists an award winning “2003 Grand Reserve Barbera†but my bottle doesn’t say anything about it being a Grand Reserve so I don’t think that the bottle I had is the same thing.